The New Jersey Catholic Conference and the New Jersey Network of Catholic School Families seek to restore the per-pupil transportation ceiling to $1,000 by using funds currently in the Fiscal Year 2019 Governor’s Budget. Among the various issues currently facing our Catholic School student population, this is THE major issue for the Catholic schools.

Representing Catholic schools in the Trenton Diocese, Frances Koukotas testified April 9 before a joint meeting of the State Assembly and Senate education committees, expressing the pressing need for security funding for Catholic schools.

The New Jersey Catholic Conference and the New Jersey Network of Catholic School Families invites you to take action regarding funding for nonpublic school transportation, security, technology and nursing.

The following is an Action Alert from the New Jersey Catholic Conference: The BRIDGE (Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy) Act, S.128/H.R. 496, was recently introduced in Congress as a bipartisan effort to sustain the temporary relief from deportation and employment eligibility offered to youth through the Department of Homeland Security’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The following is an op-ed submitted by Daniel F. Steinmetz Jr., Gloucester Township, N.J.: Largely off the media radar is an ever-growing, serious, and unnecessary transportation problem for many New Jersey Catholic schools. For decades, New Jersey law, N.J.S.A. 18A: 39-19(a), has mandated the State to cover the costs of transporting eligible nonpublic school students to and from school.

The following is an Action Alert from the NJ Catholic Conference: Nonpublic school transportation continues to be hampered by a number of problems which emphasize difficulties nonpublic school parents face in attempting to get safe rides to school for their children. Namely, the State has not increased the ceiling for nonpublic school transportation funding since the 2007-08 school year. There is a fact sheet below that explains the problem in greater detail.

The archbishop who serves as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has asked U.S. Catholics to sign a pledge calling for an end to the slaughter of Christians and members of other religious minority groups in the Middle East.